Thursday, June 18, 2009

Big Numbers #1 by Alan Moore

This is the first issue in an unfinished comic book series by Alan Moore. Only the first two of a planned twelve issues were published (in 1990), and Moore says there is no possibility of the series ever being completed.

The illustration by Bill Siemkewicz is an interesting style that mixes photorealism with abstraction, utilizing a variety of techniques such as oil painting and collage. I love the smeary pencil lines.

From wikipedia: "Another level of understanding Big Numbers is through fractal geometry, chaos theory, and the mathematical ideas of Benoit Mandelbrot. The series intended to show that patterns existing at the large scale (the effect of the town) would have existed at a micro scale (the effect on individual characters' lives."

It makes a bit sad that the series will never come to fruition, as I think the ideas behind it are fascinating. One wonders what might have been, whether the series is an unrealized classic.

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